Bombshell Decals continue rolling out extremely nice decals! This release of the B-26C Marauders contains decals to build two aircraft except for one set of the National Stars, and one set of standard Curtis prop blade markings. A note explains that two of the Curtis markings would often wear off; therefore enough decals are provided for two aircraft. If you used Bombshell decals already, you will find the same quality in this bag. All the decals have a sheen and easily seen against the flat paper surface. The clear flash around each decal is minimal if you elect to trim them. Veterans of decal applications using gloss surfaces and solvents will probably not trim them. All the numbers and letters have clear film for proper spacing and decrease distortion when applied. There are no signs of color overlap which makes the decals crisp and clear. This is very obvious just looking at the nose art ladies. You can actually see blush on their faces and highlights in their hair.

Quickboost has provided modelers with a means to attach P-51 propeller blades to the spinner for the Hasegawa kits in a repeatable manner. The resin pieces were cast in a fine grain resin without flaws and with very little clean up. What one has to do is to remove the casting gates off the bottom of the spinner and the blade setting tool. I used a disc sander for that and a snip to remove the blades and shaft from the casting block.

Introduction

There have been many books published on the Vought F4U Corsair over the years, so why, you might ask, has another one appeared? The reason is that this is not only a comprehensive history of the development and combat career of the Corsair, but it is also a very complete modelers’ guide to all Corsair kits in 1/32, 1/48, and 1/72 scale. I don’t know why they left out 1/144, as there has been at least one kit issued in this scale. In any event, this is a really complete history of the type, and it explains the developmental problems and how they were solved, with the Corsair evolving into not only an outstanding fighter but also a highly effective close support aircraft, with a production life beginning in 1941, and continuing until 1952, when the last Corsair, an F4U-7, was rolled out of the Dallas plant.

Quickboost just keeps adding to their line of resin aircraft accessories. The latest addition is for the Tamiya Mosquito. It is up to their usual standards; molded in grey resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block because of a nice perforation. It only took me a couple of minutes with my saw blade to remove them. Another plus is that the exhausts are bored out, which would be a real pain if you tried to do it on the kit part.

The exhausts that come in the Tamiya kit look alright and would make an acceptable model but the Quickboost replacements are superior because of how they are bored out which makes for more realism, especially in a photo. These exhausts are very easy to install, and they just fit right in.

Description:

2 resin 265-gallon tip tanks and mount fairings. Ex-KMC mold. For the Revell/Monogram kits.

Inspection:

Packaged is in a clear face, white backed, poly bag stapled to a folded card along with a note sheet. It was clear the vintage KMC molds seem to be holding up pretty well despite the years. Upon opening the package I found the resin almost flawless, detecting only a few pinholes and heavy pour stubs. The details include nice gas caps and mounting points on the tanks. The wing tip fairings appear to be a tad small otherwise they look fine. Squadron included a note warning of “possible resin shrinkage” installing these fairings will require minor surgery of the kit, the wing tips will need to be trimmed to the panel line while remembering you must compensate for ‘resin shrinkage’.